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A jury at Southwark Crown Court has found Serco Limited (Serco), the operator of the Docklands Light Railway, guilty of a serious health and safety offence following a prosecution brought by the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR).

The incident resulted in the death of a member of the public, Robert Carter, who fell onto the track and was struck by a train.

The ORR prosecution followed an incident on 2 April 2007 at All Saints DLR station. During an altercation between Mr Carter and another person, Mr Carter was pushed and fell onto the track. A short time later he was struck by a train and fatally injured.

ORR carried out a full investigation and found that Serco had an inadequate procedure in place for stopping trains in an emergency. The company allowed control room staff to decide whether to stop trains based partly on CCTV images. The CCTV system was not designed or intended for this purpose.

ORR director of railway safety Ian Prosser said: “I would like to extend my sympathies to Mr Carter’s family.

“ORR welcomes today’s guilty verdict. Due to safety improvements over the last decade, Great Britain now has a safer rail network and the risk of an accident is as low as it has ever been. Fortunately these incidents are rare but our investigation found it could have been avoided if a proper procedure had been implemented.

“There is absolutely no room for complacency in health and safety and ORR will not tolerate public safety being put at risk. We will continue to press for improvements and take enforcement action - including prosecution - when necessary.

“Following ORR's enforcement action, Serco has made changes to its procedure to ensure that such an incident should never happen again.” 

The case has been adjourned for sentencing until 12 May.

Notes to Editors:

1. Serco Limited was found guilty of breaching section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The particulars of the offence were that it failed to ensure, so far as was reasonably practicable, that persons not in its employment were not exposed to risks to their health and safety, in that it failed to ensure that automatic trains operating on the Docklands Light Railway system did not hit persons who were on the tracks. 
2. Serco Limited face an unlimited fine. According to the sentencing guidelines the starting point for a fatality is £100,000.
3. Shortly before 2210 on 2 April 2007, Mr Carter was involved in an argument with another person, during which time they arrived at All Saints DLR station. In the course of the altercation, Mr Carter was pushed towards the platform.  He stumbled and fell onto the track. The other person contacted the police and reported the incident to them. This phone conversation continued as the incident unfolded.
4. An operator in the Metropolitan Police control room reported the incident to British Transport Police who then contacted the DLR control room. The police operator suggested to the DLR operator that they should check the CCTV at All Saints DLR station to confirm whether there was anyone on the track. The DLR operator looked at the CCTV but failed to see anyone on the track.  He told the police operator that there was no-one on the track and he did not stop the trains.
5. Shortly afterwards another control room operator saw on the CCTV a police officer at All Saints DLR station waving his arms above his head. He pushed the emergency plunger to stop the train. The train did stop but only after the first set of wheels struck Mr Carter. Mr Carter suffered serious injuries and died in hospital shortly afterwards.

ORR press office

• 020 7282 2094/2007